Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I've been immersed in old movies lately. The kind of old movies that nobody's really seen, and I've never heard of, and maybe you don't even have to see to get the gist of. Most recently I watched James Whale's Waterloo Bridge (1931). I found it in a boxed set called Forbidden Hollywood that featured several films that were banned or censored for their "racy" content. Waterloo Bridge was certainly the tamest of the bunch, but also, for me, the most passionate...and I guess "truest" in a sense. Anyway, Mae Clarke (you may have seen her in Frankenstein) plays the main character Myra, and she's got the most expressive and beautiful face--I had to constantly kick myself for thinking of Laura Mulvey every 10 seconds so I could just enjoy how pretty she was when she cried. Sometimes I forget to enjoy things when I'm so busy enjoying not enjoying them...er well...that's not exactly what I mean, but you English types will get that. But seriously, she has the prettiest crying face ever, and that's no easy feat.I couldn't find a picture of the crying, but check out how foxy she is in general.

and from Frankenstein:

It all makes me want to wear gauzy dresses and traipse through London alleys with a soldier boy and a grin.